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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Not that clear/sharp because my camera's battery died so I used my phone...

How has your week been? Mine was a little hectic but it's good to be back in the swing of things after the craziness of Spring Break and then the following week catching up from Spring Break. I actually was able to do some real couponing in today's trip and I am finally feeling like I am back on track with coupon organization and grocery planning.

I wanted to make it to Target this week to see our newly renovated "Fresh Grocery" store but it didn't happen and I am hoping to go this weekend. Today's Publix trip was my only shopping this week and it was a pretty big trip.

This week's Publix ad lasts until Easter Monday so I broke up what I wanted out of the sale and bought some this week and will buy some next week to spread it out with our weekly shopping budget. I didn't find any good deals on fresh veggies this week so we will either eat what we have in the freezer (which is a ton) or swing by the local produce stand.

Today I finally was able to stack one of my $5/$50 Publix coupons with a $5/$30 Winn Dixie coupon from Enjoy the City because for the first time in a long time I hit $80 before coupons. That really helped with today's total since even after coupons and sales I ended up spending a little more than our targeted $50 a week and saving about 63%.

Don't forget to link up your weekly totals/shopping trip posts below and if you have a food blog come back on Monday for my first Mealtime Monday recipe link up!

1 five pound bag of Domino sugar, retails for $4.17, on sale for $2.99

Used a .40 cents off coupon from the 3/18 RP

Made it $2.59

1 dozen Eggland's Best eggs, retails for $2.69 on sale for $2.29

Used a .35 cents off coupon from the 3/18 SS

Made them $1.86

Whew. Told you that was a large trip/long list. How did you do this week? Inspire me (and everyone else) with your amazing savings and deals this week. Please link up directly to your specific post. No main pages, giveaways, or etsy shops please. I would love it if you would link back to this post or grab my button from the sidebar : )

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Let me start by giving credit where credit is due. My husband Justin did most of the prep work for this dish. I was at work and I left him instructions on how to prep the chicken and put it in the crock pot.

Knowing this was going to be used for a blog post he even took pictures for me of the process. His shot of the ingredients shows me he actually does read some of my past blog posts : )

See, I love the idea of roast chicken but every time we make it I feel like it is just short of being good. Maybe it's a little dry or a little bland. This chicken was perfect. It was moist and so flavorful. And with the weather getting warmer by the day here in South Florida, I loved that we didn't have to have our oven on too.

We paired this with a big salad and baked potatoes and it made them perfect meal. I used a 3.5 pound chicken and we had plenty of left overs for lunch the next day.

Updated: Based on lots of questions I have received through comments, emails and Facebook, I just wanted to edit this to say that we usually cook it on the high setting of our crock pot and then once it is done we often leave it on low or "keep warm" until we are ready to eat. I also always make sure that I check it with a meat thermometer to make sure it is completely cooked before we turn off the crock pot. Hope that helps!

Whole Chicken In The Crock Pot

1 large chicken, we used about a 3.5 pound one but you can use whatever size you like that fits in your crock pot

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon thyme

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 onion (we used a red onion because it's what we had on hand)

1.) Loosely chop the onion and layer it on the bottom of the crock pot.

2.) Combine the spices in a small bowl.

Love that Justin thought to take this picture!

3.) If need be clean the insides out of the chicken and then rub the spice mixture all over the chicken (and in the inside too if you like).

4.) Place the chicken on top of the onion in the crock pot and put on the lid. No need to add any kind of liquid.

5.) Cook for 4-5 hours or until chicken is fully done.

6.) Serve and enjoy!

Make sure you stop by this week's Mealtime Monday and link up to some of our own amazing recipes.

I don't know about you but I love a good deal. There are very few purchases in my life that I can think of off the top of my head that I didn't get some kind of deal on.

Whether it has been through couponing, deal sites, TJMaxx/Home Goods, our house (which was a forclosure, our honeymoon (which was during the off season), by getting a "cash" discount or by shopping sales and clearance racks almost everything I own I bought on sale. That may sound cheap of me, but really it has allowed us to be able to have and do things we might not have been able to afford otherwise.

That being said, there are something I would happily pay full price for (and often times do).

For me that includes:

Our healthcare (although getting a deal doesn't hurt)

Diet Coke

I try to stock up when there are sales or drugstore deals but I would buy it even if it never went on sale again. Yes, I know Diet Coke is "bad" for me. But, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs, I don't eat red meat, and I always wear my seat belt. If Diet Coke is what kills me than it was part of God's plan : )

Quality meat products

A really nice dinner out every once and awhile at our favorite restaurant which never has deals, coupons or promotions

Bare Minerals Make Up

Again, I try to buy it on sale or with a discount but I love it so much I would and do pay full price for it.

What are you willing to pay full price for? Do you have a favorite brand or item you would buy even if it never went on sale again? I saw this question on I Heart Publix a while ago and it really got me thinking about my answers. I would love to hear what you all think! Comment with your answers : )

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

You can get 5 Enjoy the City coupon books for a total $29 plus free shipping. Use the code SPRING at check out to get the deal.

You have to put all 5 books into your cart for the deal to show/work. If this is anything like the last 5/$29 deal they did you can also mix and match books from different areas to get your five. It will show your discount at the bottom of your order and you might have to click all the way through the checkout process to right before you pay to see the deal reflected.

I have bought a couple of these books through fundraisers and the best part about them is the four $5/$30 Winn Dixie coupons which my Publix also accepts. (note: not all books have the Winn Dixie coupons in them) That in itself pays for the book at more. My area's version also has tons of great coupons for restaurants, entertainment, and shopping.

You can actually preview you area's entire book to make sure you like the coupons before you buy. I am not sure how long this promotion lasts so you may want to take advantage of it now if you are interested.

These delicious looking peanut butter based treats were no exception. These originally come from Averie Cooks and her's are probably a little prettier than mine which may be due to my accidental adaptation of her recipe.

I was attempting to double her recipe (because 12-14 of something wouldn't last a minute in our house) and I doubled up on the brown sugar. I only used half the flour she did and by the time I realized it all, they were already made and tasted amazing none the less. So I am sticking with my new version.

She used candy coated almonds which I didn't have on hand and don't really like so I went with my tried and true favorite, holiday themed M&M's. You can use anything in their place and I am hoping to try these again with new and fun things in the centers.

No Bake Peanut Butter Nests (double batch)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

M&M's or anything you like to use as the centers

I used these Easter egg shaped M&M's from Target

1.) Whip together butter and peanut butter.

2.) Add the sugars and whip until smooth.

3.) Stir in the cinnamon, salt, and vanilla. And then slowly stir in the flour. You may need to use more or less flour in order to get the right consistancy.

Mine was a little grainy until I got in there and mixed it with my hands.

Once I mixed it by hand it firmed up.

4.) Form into small round balls. (I used a 1/2 tablespoon to help measure mine out.)

5.) Place balls onto wax paper and gently press in M&M's. I used my hands to help form the dough around the M&M's to look more like a nest.

Store in the fridge or freezer and then let them warm up before eating. If you try to eat them right out of the freezer your teeth may regret it. Frozen M&M's are pretty hard : )

Enjoy!

Make sure you stop by this week's Mealtime Monday and link up some of your amazing recipes!

Happy Monday! It looks like we are back to our first "normal week" in a long time. Last week I didn't really get to any of my meal plan because Justin ended up working two double shifts in a row meaning he was only home for dinner one week night out of five. That one night was his birthday so we went over to dinner at his mom's meaning I pretty much did almost no cooking last week. Not that I am complaining : )

What I am really excited about is the weekly link up party I am hoping to start next week. While there are so many great link up parties out there is the blogosphere, I am hoping to do one just for food items and recipes. As I plan our menus, I love using Pinterest for inspiration but I would love to see what all you amazing food bloggers are making. So make sure to stop back next Monday morning (or maybe late Sunday night) and link up some of your delicious recipe post at Mealtime Monday!

In preparation for that, I would love to "meet" all you bloggers out there who stop by Couponing & Cooking. So I am hosting a one time only "Mingle Monday". Please link up to your blog's main page so I can stop on by and visit. I will make sure to follow all the blogs who link up and I love looking around new blogs for fun ideas to "pin" for future reference.

A would love it if:

You would link back to this post/blog. You can do so by grabbing my button (upper right hand corner) or by adding this blog to your list of places you link up to/party at on your Link Parties page. Make sure you check out my Link Ups page for lots more fun places to link up at.

Please follow this blog through GFC or Blog Lovin

Please only post your blog's main page. No giveaways, etsy shops or anything not family friendly.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Happy almost Friday! It's been nice (and hectic) to be back to a regular work schedule this week and for the first time in awhile I was able to do my weekly Publix shopping on my normal day of Thursday.

Nothing crazy this week for me at Publix. The sales were good but we are just so well stocked on so many things that I don't feel the need to spend the extra money taking advantage of some of the deals right now. Also, as I mentioned last week, I haven't been on my couponing game lately and I am attempting to get back into things now that life has settled down a bit. I had very few coupons this week and my recipet below is a perfect example of how you can save money by shopping smartly even without coupons.

Today I bought meat at Publix (just a chicken) for the first time since my overage stock up trip. We actually still have some meat in the freezer (a pack of the chicken and one pack of the ground beef and the pork loin from overage trip and a whole chicken left from a sale awhile ago) but I want to keep our meat supply stocked when there are sales since I found that there were really no good deals on meat this past summer.

I wanted to use my $5/$50 Alberston's coupon from this week's flyer but my total before coupons didn't hit $50 so I had to use one of my precious $5/$30 Enjoy The City coupons. Oh well... I stayed right around 50% this week which is ok with me since I got cheap butter, BOGO peanut butter and some veggies.

How did you do this week? Inspire me (and everyone else) with your amazing savings and deals this week. Please link up directly to your specific post. No main pages, giveaways, or etsy shops please. I would love it if you would link back to this post or grab my button from the sidebar : )

It's a pretty sale ad this week at Publix. We don't need many of the sale items so I am going to try and use our weekly grocery money for some staples and fresh things for our weekly meals (and into next week's meals). I am really excited to see what will be in the upcoming week's of Easter ads so I will probably try to save some of our monthly spending for those : )

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Looks like Publix has a new Buy Theirs, Get Ours Free promotion starting with this week's new sale cycle. It appears to be Spring Cleaning themed.

The way these promotions work is you buy the specific name brand item and you get the Publix version for free. My Publix's have started doing a display table/area with the specific products. You can use coupons on the brand name items to make the deals even better.

Also, make sure to check your papers, my Albertson's flyer had a $5/$50 coupon in it this morning and our local Publix's consider it to be a competitor.

You just buy the tickets through the daily deal and then they will give you instructions on how to redeem them online. Once you redeem them you get the tickets by mail. I have done this a few times and it has worked pretty well.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I finally got a good pictures of them before they got destroyed. It only took 5 tries...

Get excited, the recipe for cheesy potatoes is finally up on the blog! People have been asking me to post this forever and even though I am still not overly thrilled with the photos I have I am posting it now in hopes that I can update the pics in the future.

﻿As weird as this may sound, this is quite possibly my favorite recipe that my family has. It is insanely easy, really bad for you and completely delicious. I make it for every party that Justin and I have. I always think I should try something different but I believe our friends would riot if they showed up and this wasn't on the menu : )

So for all my friends who said they want to make it over the holidays, here is the recipe!

Collins Family Cheesy Potatoes

1 two pound bag of frozen hash browns (cubed style)

1 small can of cream of chicken soup

16oz. sour cream

3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (you will divide this)

1/2 cup butter melted

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped onion (this is optional, I don't include it but my mom does)

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Well it's back to reality for me. After an amazing and very relaxing Spring Break I am back at work/school today. We are going to try and get back to normal routine this week and that means attempting to stick to a dinner/menu plan. I am going to attempt to make it on the healthier side since there was no shortage of delicious food on our cruise.

To keep my inspiration going, I would love it if you would link up to what you have been making/baking/cooking this past week. I am especially looking for recipes for healthy treats and fun Easter treat projects. Last week's recipes looked amazing.

I would really love it if you would link back to this post or even better grab my button from the upper right hand corner. Please link directly to your blog post. No giveaways, etsy shops or anything that is not family friendly : )